RTL-SDR Blog V3 R860 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO SMA Software Defined Radio (Dongle Only) (Black)

These dongles have a VERY sensitive front end, and do not react well to being hooked up to an internal IF Tap. There is a design flaw in these units that allows the USB shielding to be used as an antenna, causing the front end to be overloaded with RF, even at extremely low power (1/4 watt). If you plan on using one of these with an IF tap, be prepared to do some modifications to remove the USB shielding, and basically make a faraday cage for the dongle. Ferrite beads can help.

Ive only used this for a couple hours now, but man was this easy to set up and awesome to use. It is very fun to visually see and navigate through the radio signals. It took me less than 10 minutes using their quick start guide on rtl-sdr.com/qsg I gained confidence before purchasing this device from all the positive reviews of course and mainly their website. The website is easy to navigate and I was overjoyed to see how detailed the troubleshooting guide was, so if I ran into any problems I could very likely find a solution. It is nice to see such a detailed troubleshooting page with pretty much any possible problem that could happen with this device. Anytime I jump into a DIY project im afraid I will have to use google for 3-4 hours to find a solution. I only ran into one problem during set up with the software and that was on the step that said to run the batch file in the extracted folder of the SDR# software. Probably because I am on a Domain computer with security settings that prevent batch files from running. Well in that same step on their quick start guide they had a link to manually install the drivers instead which only took a minute to do. I followed the rest of the steps. Plugged in the RTL-SDR with my ICOM female SMA antenna from my HAM radio and sure enough it came alive instantly. I was amazed at how easy it was to set up. I turned up the gain in the software and I could start finding random HAMs in my area and various repeaters. I couldnt find any HF signals probably due to my antenna. Their website suggests getting a planar disk antenna or a discone antenna for listening on nearly any frequency between 25Mhz and 1300Mhz. My HAM rubber duckie antenna with this picked up a lot of signals from local FM radio, 136Mhz-900Mhz. This is definitely an awesome buy for the price of $17. I just bought a Uniden BC125AT handheld radio scanner for $110 earlier this week. It is a handy device since it is portable, but it has only a small portion of the frequency range compared to SDR. For $110 it isnt worth it for what it does so I am definitely returning it after playing with this thing. Im excited to experiment more with it to find other neat uses for SDR. I highly recommend getting a USB extension cable for this device so you can have enough cable to work with. I happened to have a 10ft USB Amazon extension cable I bought a couple months ago that works perfectly for this. Since I am using this with a rubber duckie antenna it is about a foot long sticking out of the computer. Not an ideal location for this since it wouldnt fit well behind the computer and I would likely break it if it was sticking out the front of the computer. It would even be good for a laptop since all laptop USB ports stick straight out the side. A USB extension cable allows you to place the device and antenna in a much better location. My last recommendation for full use of this is a discone antenna as the company suggests or something better than a simple rubber duckie or whip antenna. This thing is too cool to only use it with a rubber duckie. Just buy it!

It was simple to install physically. The software was a bit complicated and required extra steps, but the instructions were very clear and easy to understand. Ive been having fun using it to listen and see the radio spectrum.

Still trying to figure out how this happened! This is the fourth RTLSDR Blog dongle Ive purchased. Experience has taught me this dongle is very susceptible to voltage surges. BUT, for the price and capability of this dongle, it is best! Ive tried most every flavor of SDR software out there and SDR # (Sharp) is my choice for running this dongle. If youre interested in Software Defined Radios, I would recommend this dongle. (watch out for knock-offs)

It took me about 10 minutes of fiddling to get the software and driver (that was the difficult part) installed. This little device, about the size of a 9-volt battery or a cigarette lighter receives radio signals over a broad range of frequencies very, very well. I can receive signals on this as good as I can on a ham radio that costs around twenty or so times as much. You need some type of external antenna for really good reception. I hooked it to a ham radio antenna I have here and had no problem hearing stateside and foreign stations clearly. The user interface is a bit clunky, in my opinion, but not too hard to operate. What I dislike is probably because I am used to using radios with knobs and buttons, rather than clicking on arrows. Definitely a useful product for people interested in listening to radio signals, from Ham stations to police and even FM broadcast stations.

It works, but...it is mainly designed for the VHF and UHF range of 24Mhz and up. While, yes, it can receive HF, its effectiveness at receiving those frequencies isnt very high. On the HF band, its about as sensitive as a cheap $20 shortwave analog radio with a short whip antenna. If you want to get it for scanner purposes or for anything regarding ham radio in the 144 or 440Mhz range, then this will do fine as long as you get the kit with the antennas in it. I cannot recommend this for shortwave or HF ham radio band listening. With that said, let me say this, for just $20 or so this would be a decent way to give someone a dip into the Software Designed Radio waters. To give them an idea of what is possible with an SDR, what it can pick up, and what it can do with the right software. For Linux users: I run Ubuntu 18.04LTS and this was pretty much plug and play for me. All I had to do was install CubicSDR from the Ubuntu Software Center, plug in the dongle, and it started receiving. I couldnt get GQRX to work with this dongle at all on the HF bands. It worked just fine with CubicSDR. But like I said above, this is about as sensitive on the HF bands as a cheap analog shortwave radio. Thus is why Im returning it. It was a nice experiment into the SDR realm and give me a taste of the possibilities. However, I think Ill stick with actual hardware receivers and use an audio connection for decoding. That Im already doing.

Next day delivery and on a Sunday. Out of the package, up and running is a matter of minutes. As many features with the software as a $5,000 radio.

This is the real deal. Not a fake or clone.

This is my 3rd SDR, first of this design. The case doesnt vent and it gets intensely overheated. If you are savvy you can write your own programs with auto shutdowns for cool off periods. But it cools slowly, no venting, not well heatsink. It will spend more time off than on. If you just let it run, it will cook itself to death. Either ingot a bad unit or this design is garbage.

As far as I can tell it works well for a $21 SDR when used alone, but I purchased it to be a panadapter for my TS-590SG and right now, they dont play well together. Construction is solid but this is not a Plug and Play dongle by any means and youre going to need to download 3 programs beyond an SDR interface (SDR#, HDSDR et al) just to install the drivers needed to get it to function on a Windows machine (I wont even bother with the software headaches to attempt to turn it into a panadapter for a Kenwood). It also emits a heck of a lot of RFI. I had it sitting next to my Kenwood that I was listening to an AM signal on 3.750 MHz when I powered up the RTL-SDR and the S7 station I was listening was suddenly drowned in static at 20 over S9. Moving the RTL-SDR 3 feet away from my radio cleared the problem. Pros: Price and physical durability. Cons: Not for an SDR Novice due to software needs and set-up, not well shielded and produces RFI that will interfere with a HF radio. Buy it if you know what youre doing with an SDR and not planning on doing any Ham operations in the same room.